Rockville Centre Cinema
340 Sunrise Highway,
Rockville Centre,
NY
11570
340 Sunrise Highway,
Rockville Centre,
NY
11570
7 people
favorited this theater
Showing 26 - 50 of 124 comments
To longislandmovies, The building is still there. Still with a for lease sign on it. I don’t think the inside has been touched. Last I heard the owner of the property wanted too much rent to make it work for an operator.
What is there now???
Its funny how this theatre was an RKO from the start, and yet was built similar to many Jery Lewis theatres from the early 70’s. I remember the twin my late father worked at in Carteret N.J. The left theatre was blue and the right theatre was red. The concession stand was built right across the lobby, so there was no way to cross from one side to the other. This was helpful later in the decade after JL was out of the business and the theatre started showing soft porn in the blue theatre (which they called the adult side, the other theatre was the family side.) It finally closed in 1984, but man that place was fun, alot like your sounded like.
I am sorry to see that this theatre is closed. I would take my GF there after going to Time Piece Cafe for dinner. I seem to recall it was always busy on Fri and Sat nights. I would try to time dinner with enough time to eat and not have to rush for the movie. I liked it because you could not only see the movies but hear them as well. If I had seen the movie playing there I would go to the Green Acres or Sunrise multiplex that was before they put the airport metal detectors in there.
Any news on this???????
i DID COME AROUND THE SAME TIME..
someone asked me about this..i remember it…didn’t
this twin come about the same time as west babylon rko twin?
what is around it now?
Nice little twin, saw a lot of movies here when I was kid with my dad.
I saw:
The Goonies-1985
Spaceballs-1987
Who Frammed Roger Rabbit-1988
Lethal Weapon 2-1989
Saw much more, but this is what I remember. I do recall going downstairs to the bathroom. A shame it had to shutdown, it would have been nice to go back to see a shot there to relive my childhood.
I saw that they were closed a few months back for an asbestos cleaning .Nice shots!
Ed nice shots ………….love to see this back ……..i wish i still lived on longisland……..
Swung by the theater today with my camera, which I pressed up against the filthy glass front of the theater to get these shots into the lobby (and even one of the theater doors):
Through the doors of the “blue” auditorium
Right side of refreshment stand
Head-on refreshment stand
Box Office window
Made in Brooklyn
Four adults for the 7:30 showing of Blow Out, please
Right (blue) side of lobby
A ghostly view through the doors
What is that metallic object in the distance?
Under the canopy
Exclusive Agent
Looks like they unceremoniously ripped out all the light fixtures and the entire drop ceiling (grid, panels and all) from the lobby. At least one pane of glass is cracked in a large shatter pattern (but it hasn’t broken to shards) and the windows could definitely use a wash, but overall this seems to be in pretty good shape. Anyone know what the shiny metallic looking square is at the end of the aisle in the photos into the right auditorium? Looks like this is where the screen should be – could it be part of the speaker system?
Anyway… I saw many movies here in the early ‘80’s when I lived in relatively nearby Laurelton, Queens. The only one that comes to mind after all these years is Brian DePalma’s “Blow Out” back in 1981. I think I also saw David Lynch’s “The Elephant Man” here – but that might have been the RKO in Lawrence.
Both theaters were single aisle down the center, so you always sat to one side or the other of the dead center sweet-spot a lot of folks loved. And at matinees, if someone opened the door to the lobby, the image on screen would get partially washed out by sunlight streaming through the mostly-glass facade! Now that I’m thinking of it, I’m trying to remember if this theater placed the aisle slightly off center so that one section was a bit wider than the other and would therefore offer a center-screen sightline for those who could get those seats early enough. I might be thinking of one of those auditoriums formed by the split of a larger single screen (like the Lynbrook) – it’s all rather fuzzy nowadays!
I’ll echo some of the sentiments above on what a great little village RVC is. Great restaurants in a hopping little business district that is always clean and brightly lit. I’ve never had a problem with parking – a lot of some kind always seems to be within walking distance of wherever your headed. There is a lot behind the Fantasy multiplex, another across Sunrise Hwy and yet another behind the storefronts that are on the other side of the street from the Fantasy. As for not being able to park in front of your own house – part of living in an incorporated village on Long Island is that you have to move your cars off the street and into your driveway (which everyone has) between the hours of 3AM and 5AM. Residents of apartment complexes can either rent spaces in their complex' lot or park at nearby Village lots with permits or cheap overnight metered rates (a dollar for 12 hours is not uncommon).
i looked into this place a while back. the rent was so high. i would love to see it re-opened rather than sitting around or becoming some ugly storefront.
Anyone interested in forming a coalition to help turn this theater into a community cultural arts center that would show independent movies as well as develop other art and dramatic programs, please e-mail me
posted by scrivenerb on Jul 24, 2007 at 12:36pm
Not the greatest twin cinemas in creation, but the loss of any is still a blow to the heart.
Interesting. I actually met with the realtor today and saw the building. He didn’t mention anything about that and the architectural plans he gave me gave me the impression that they were also trying to pitch it as a retail space.
I’ve written to some local government officials and they seem interested in the cultural arts center idea.
Well at least it would be kept as a movie theater if a cineplex took it over and it wouldn’t be a chain store. Please let me know if you hear anything else.
Heres some RVC gossip I just heard from a local store owner on that block.According to him the movie theatre has or is being taken over b another cineplex.
Anyone interested in forming a coalition to help turn this theater into a community cultural arts center, please e-mail me
Up for lease for over a year, the RVC theater is now up for sale. The realtor is Sutton and Edwards and the phone number on the marquee is 516-328-6500.
While not the most beautiful theater, the marquee is cool, and the historic value to the community is, I think, important.
Rockville Centre is a very community based village. The people are very proud of their community and work very hard to preserve it which may to some appear to “have an attitude,” and it also accounts for some somewhat unique restrictions on homes and businesses. People who live here put up with it because they know it is in the interest of preserving the charm of the village they love.
After reading in the Rockville Centre Herald that the Malverne was interested in the property, I spoke to the Malverne owner about it briefly one night while attending his theater and he said that he didn’t think the theater could make money since it was only a duplex and the problem of the parking issue.
Nevertheless, I think this theater has some potential. Rockville Centre is known as the restaurant captial of Nassau County. It is the perfect dinner and a movie date night town, especially because of the variety of restaurants. People from all over the county come here to go out to dinner.
I think it could do well as a community arts cultural center. A similar project of turning an old movie theater into a cultural arts center did wonders for the real estate in West Hampton Beach. The Huntington Cultural Arts Center seems to be successful.
I’m going to look into it to see if it’s viable. Anyone interested in joining a coalition to turn the movie theater into a cultural arts center, e-mail me at or stay tuned……
Geo1 also didn’t mention the “attitude” in Rockville Centre…
…oh yeah, I forgot about the high taxes…
Parking your car in Rockville Center (Centre) is a nightmare* Especially on a weekend, or during nice summer/spring nights.
Geo1—– The theater parking has never brrn a big issue for this theater as it uses the bank lot .The bank owns the building and the theater can only be open when the bank is closed..This twin can and was making money ,this theater closed the day chain ownersipe changed.
Someone would perhaps go into the theatre if it was for sale. But look at the aerial shot above. But think outside the box. Look at how crowded this area is and there is very little parking. There are small parking area here and there. Keep in mind that if this building does seat around 800 people, you should have at least 300 parking spaces available. Granted, maybe a bit less because this area does have access to mass transit (LIRR and buses). Then there is the use to think about. This theatre is way too small to convert to a live performance venue. That is really the only thing that would work out generate a good income. Maybe a non-profit arts movie house may work…but you could never do first runs here. Just in the next town, Valley Stream, you have a few theatres including a large one by the VS Mall. So that would be out of the question. With two screens you probably wouldn’t make enough money anyway. . Running old movies probably will not be enough to get people out of their homes. It is a pretty touchy situation, but perhaps as others pointed out because the building is not for sale, probably the owner is ramming up the rent. Once he gets discouraged enough, he probably will renovate the building to turn it into a retail outlet. CLASSIC Long Island for you.
The sad thing is that Long Island does need big theatres for live shows. Right now the only ones that I ever hear much about is the Patchogue Theatre and also Gateway Playhouse. Occasionally I hear something going on at the Airport Playhouse in Bohemia, but that is a really small place in an industrial area.
Just about all of Long Island’s large single screen houses are gone or have been converted to retail space.
Finally there is the cost of living/and or operating a business here. Taxes are VERY high. One of the highest in the nation. Add insult to injury with rising gas prices and people are just not leaving their homes anymore. So you have to make something affordable and attractive enough to get people to come to your theatre. Yet profitable enough to pay your bills.
I hate to say it, but I don’t foresee anything happening with this theatre anytime soon. If indeed that bank next to it owns the theatre, I am sure they will convert it to something they know they can lease at a high figure once they figure out no one is going to pay their present high rate to run the place as a movie theatre.
Lastly…look at the place. It’s a box. No character at all. It isn’t like it is a classic movie palace with a guilded facade and velvet seats and a gold clad proscenium arch.
Given this building’s size and it’s divided nature, I can almost assure you that the owner will eventually create two retail shops out of this building and then get TWO rents out of it.
I am sorry to say that, but realistically think about it for a while. It would be the easiest AND most profitable thing for the owner to do with an otherwise empty building.
Long Island e-mail me if you have any contact info on who has the sale for The Rockvilel Twin. Me and my freind have an idea for a cinema/cafe fot it.
The clientelle around there would love it.